Is my research worth doing?

June 07, 2024

Hey team,

Today I wanna talk about how do you know if your research is worth doing?

Daniel Dennett gives us this metaphor to understand if your research is worth doing. He calls it Chess or Chmess.

Here’s how it works

Chess is a real game (shocker I know) played by millions. If the muse struck you, you could spend years of hard work studying Chess. You might try to figure out how many moves are possible, what are the best strategies and

This research might be useful because lots of people play Chess

Then there is Chmess.

Chmess is a made-up game. It’s exactly the same as Chess, but the King can move two squares rather than one.

You could work just as hard to study Chmess. To find out what moves are and are not possible in this new game, but your effort would be wasted because no one plays chmess.

It doesn’t matter how hard this research is because it is just not worth doing

Chess is research worth doing Chmess is research not worth doing

Many researchers have wasted years doing research that doesn't matter

Just because you can study something, doesn't mean you should.

But, doing Chmess can have some upside

  • You can get innovation: It's hard to predict what research is going to be useful or not

  • Sometimes it’s just fun

  • Sharpens your mind: It can give you practice doing research and learning to debate. Like the joys of arguing with people on Twitter

How to decide what research to do

  • Follow your curiosity: Do you find yourself thinking about this in the bath?

  • Does the topic feel important to you?

  • It's hard to know if you’re doing chess or chmess but, at least do it with conviction

"There are only so many studies I can do in my life, what are the things that I really want to have done?" - Daniel Lakens

Probably the most useful thing is having a word for it. Being able to say, "hmmm, this looks like some Chmess"

Cheers,

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